moore



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0. 0. MOORE. GAME APPARATUS.

No. 508,524. Patented'Nov. 14, 1893.

moo Nn/ My IN VEN T 0R ATTORNEY" i UNITED STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

oHARLEs o. MOORE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES o.

, MOORE, JR.

GAME APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 508,524, dated November 14, 1893 Application filed May 23, 1893. Serial No. 475,244- (No model.)

- To all whom it may concern.-

is a plan view of an Be it known that I, OHARLEs O. MOORE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York,in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a new game in which lettered cubes and a tablet are employed, designed more especially for teaching children.

their letters and how to read and spell,'and

at the same time amuse them in a game in which combined chance and skill engage the attention of the players.

While the game board or tablet which I have Invented and the cubes may be used for a letter game, which I have termed the alphabet game, they may also be used in various different or modified games, such as a vowel game,a consonant game, syllable game, word game, 8270.

In connection with the" tablet hereinafter described, I use four cubes, on the surfaces of one of which the vowels are printed while the consonants appear on the surfaces .of the other three cubes so that with each cast of the cubes a vowel is sure to turn up, which feature is essential in a-vowel and word game, though not in the letter or alphabet game.

In the accompanying drawings-Figure 1 is a plalrview of my new game'board or tablet. F1g.2 1s a sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 intermediate strip or frame to form spaces for the operation of the slides; and Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the cubes and cast box.

The face A of the boarder tablet is provided'with slides, B, B, one opposite each letter of the alphabet printed on the face preferably 1n two columns. The said slides are adapted to be shifted back and forth from a red strip on the face to ablue strip as the game progresses. The face A is preferably strong brlstol board, celluloid, tin or other suitable material and besides having printed thereon the alphabethas also two columns of numbers from one to twelve, one to mark the number of casts of the cubes, the other in connection with the first for playing the counters game below described. The face is held upon the intermediate form C and back D preferinter'm ediate form C. is of pasteboard, or other suitable material,

the game is chosen.

ably of tin by crimping or folding the edges 0. a of the back over the edges of the face and The intermediate form cut out to form the spaces 0 c for the slides B, B and a space d for the numbering slide B, The slides B are adapted to have a lateral Thecube F has printed on its face the vowels of the alphabet, while the cubes G have consonants printed on their faces.

The alphabet game may be played by any number of persons, each to be provided with a tablet. g I

Before any play is commenced a master of I This done, each player, beginning with the master, must cast the cubes from. the box E in regular turn and in front of his own tablet. The object'of the contestants is to throw the entire alphabet in as few casts of the cubes as possible. The master commences the game by throwing the cubes and moving the slides of letters from the red to the blue column on his own tablet to correspond with the letters on the uppermost faces of the cubes. For instance, if he throws I, B, W, K, he moves the slides corresponding to these letters on the tablet. Having made these moves he draws down the numbering slide B one point showing that he has completed his first play. He then passes the box to the player next on his right, who casts the cubes, and moves the slides and numbers his play upon his tablet accordingly. So the game proceeds around the table until it again reaches the master who will announce cast No.1 finished. The master then commences cast No.2, and having thrown, pushes the slides as before from red to blue, and the other players follow as in the first cast; but in the second and all subsequent casts, if the player should throw any letter which he has thrown before, he must move the slide of that letter back from the blue to the red column. This is'a prominent feature of the alphabet game which continues the interest to the very last moment of play for a player may score even to the twenty-third letter in the blue or ICO winning columns, and be far ahead of his competitors and yet be defeated because of the possibility of having to play his slides out of the winning blue into the red column.

The word game varies but little from the alphabet game. A name or any word is taken for the contest instead of the whole alphabet. lhis word is selected and announced by the master, and the first one W110 can correctly spell the word from the letters indicated by the slides in the winning columns of his own tablet becomes winner.

In playing the consonant game, the first cast around is with the single vowel cube and each player moves the slide indicated by his cast from the red to the white column. Each player will thus have one vowel in the white column. The next cant around will be with the consonant cubes, each one making his re spective slides from the red to the white column. When this is done, it will be seen that each player will have four letters in the white column. From all or any of the four letters found in the white column of his tablet, each player must, in turn, form and spell one or more words from all or any of these letters. If he is successful, he passes the consonants used in the spelling of the word or words into the blue column, keeping his vowel in the white column, and passes the consonants not used back into the red column. The victor of the game is the player who shows at the close the greatest number of consonants in his blue column.

In the counters game the letters of the alphabet are presumed to be given each a valuation corresponding with the number on alateral line therewith; thus A and N are valued one each; B and 0, two each and so on as shown down to M and Z valued at twelve each. In playing this game the players cast the cubes and move the slides in the usual way from red to blue in the first cast. In each subsequent cast if a player should throw a letter or letters he has thrown before he must move such letter or letters back to the red column subtracting the value from his previous blue column account and carry the balance in his mind until his next cast of the cubes. This mode of computing and bearing in mind at every cast (after addition and subtraction) the exact value of letters in his blue columns is the safest for the player for he is sure to know at that exact time how near he is to the winning point 100, but it'he is doubtfnl of his ability to so bear in mind the ever changing balances of the blue columns account after such additions and subtractions or both, or if he forgets at any time the sum which he has figured out as the value of his blue columns letters, he may at any timefigure up directly from his blue columns, without reference to each cast of the cubes.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A game apparatus having the alphabet printed on its face, and formed with a number of straight slots, one for each letter, in combination with slides fitted in said slots to be moved back and forth therein, to indicate one or more of theletters in or out of play, according to the throw of dice substantially as described.

2. A game board or tablet having the alphabet printed on its face and columns of numerals combined with slides to correspond with the letters and a slide to indicate the numerals, substantially as described.

3. A game tablet having the alphabet printed on its face and having colored columns combined with slides to correspond with the letters of the alphabet and arranged to be shifted from one colored column to the other, substantially as described.

4. The combination with the. game tablet having the alphabet printed on its face, and provided with slides to correspond with the letters of cubes having the consonants printed on their faces, and a cube having the vowels printed on its faces,substantially as described.

CHARLES C. MOORE.

Witnesses:

H. A. WEST, W. M. FAIRFAX. 

